Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta.

I Found an Example for You of Filial Fear

This clip is from a 15-year old movie which I didn’t particularly like, and stars Jack Nicholson, who I really don’t like as an actor at all. I don’t recommend this movie, but I remembered this scene which is a great secular example of the very, very first step toward filial fear. Long story short, he is telling her that he loves her. This line is the punchline of the entire movie.

“You make me want to be a better man.”

Our Lord should make you want to be a better man because of Who He is (God Almighty) and what He has done for You (the Incarnation and Passion). The “Who He is” part is servile fear, the “what He did” part is filial fear. The filial fear must be informed and magnified by the servile fear.

You must have both kinds of fear. If you only have filiar fear towards Our Lord, and no servile fear, then Jesus is basically your boyfriend. And not even your serious your boyfriend, but your totally shallow, thirteen-year-old-Tiger-Beat-Justin-Bieber-groupie imaginary “boyfriend”. {{Shudder}}.

If you have all servile fear and no filial fear, then God is a thuggish, aloof slavemaster. (Paradigm sound familiar? Cough. Non-existent pagan moon deity. Cough.)

Michael Voris over at ChurchMilitant.TV recently had a Vortex episode in which he urged his listeners to pray to God to be made a saint. This could also be phrased, “Father, You make me want to be a better man. Please make me a better man. Amen.”